A Week's Worth of Deliciousness

This week has been packed with events featuring some darn tasty food!
To start things of last Sunday, Dane hosted his weekly Sustainability Sunday meal as part of the KC Vegan Crawl! We ate some good food and discussed closed loop systems, and how to apply those principles to small businesses. So good!!
He made Pomegranate Marinara over Penne Pasta and Fresh Spinach And Tomato-Basil Bruschetta on locally-made Farm to Market Baguette

For dessert, there were Chocolate Biscuits! Yes, two of the best foods ever, combined into one! Topped with Chocolate Sauce, Pomegranate Seeds, and Blackberries. Absolutely divine!!Our friends Kevin and Janae brought the appetizer, Kalamata Olive, Sun-dried Tomato, Artichoke, and Pine Nut Tapanade, with Organic Blue Corn Chips...it was so tasty that I truly could have eaten all of it!!! Monday night was our sewing circle! Of course, there had to be a potluck beforehand...can't sew on an empty stomach!

I made a Local Tempeh-Adzuki Bean Chili....Other vegan offerings were: Citrus-Mint Quinoa Salad, Coconut Curried Sweet Potatoes, and Salad with Carrots, Avocado, Berries, and Vinaigrette Dressing.....

There was even a vegan dessert! Our friend Megan brought Chocoalte-Chocolate Chip Muffins!! Perfect with coffee before stitchin' and bitchin'!And then yesterday, for my weekly vegan brunch at my place!! Lots of people came out despite the bitter, nasty cold and snowy streets! Yay community!

I made Tofu Benedict: Homemade English Muffins (a la Isa's Vegan Brunch), topped with Homemade Seitan Canadian Bacon (recipe to come soon!), Tofu Eggs, Sauteed Organic Kale, and Hollandaise (also from VB). And, since it was brunch, there had to be potatoes!! Homefries with Caramelized Onions! Yes!!

I had never made Benedict before, even in my omni days, and I was sooooooo happy with how this turned out!!!! Everyone else was, too!

And for one more nod to Isa's Vegan Brunch cookbook, East Coast Coffee Cake, with a Cardamom-Date variation! I am in looooooooove with this cake!! Heavenly! I was so blessed with so much great food and great friends this week....let's hope this next week is just as wonderful! :)

Sundays Are For Love.

Yesterday was so awesome!! The Kansas City community really came out and supported local and sustainable foods! The meals hosted by both Dane and myself were very successful....and delicious!! For my lunch, I served up some veganized Italian foods, while Dane's dinner was a potluck this week! Fun fun fun!

Lunch!
I served Roasted Vegetable Lasagna for the main dish, and it was great! Layers of whole wheat lasagna noodles, homemade cashew ricotta, homemade marinara sauce, and roasted local veggies!! The top is Follow Your Heart Vegan Gourmet Mozzarella. Taaaaasty!I served the lasagna with a Caesar Salad--homemade dressing AND croutons, too! The bread for the croutons came from a wonderful local bakery here in KC, Fervere! Yeah!Dessert was Chocolate Hazelnut Biscotti from Veganomicon. This was a huge hit!! Probably because these are some amazing cookies!! Duh!

Dinner!

Now, onto the potluck! Everybody brought amazing dishes, all vegan, too! Here are some highlights:

Dane made an Apple Pie, with local apples, of course

A lovely salad with ALL local, freshly-picked veggies! Also, local bok choy with red chilis!Yes, there was a Tofurkey! Two, to be exact. These things are so surprisingly good! We topped them with some pomegranate seeds! Yum.

I made a Shepherd's Pie! The bottom has homemade seitan and lots of local veggies, the topping is mashed potatoes...made with local potatoes! I loooooove this dish; it's just so wintery!Our friend, Adam, brought some Roasted Potatoes, with onions, garlic, and rosemary!
Vegan Pumpkin Pie!

Awesome siblings, Chelsea and Matt Huff, making some Cranberry Chutney! delish!!
There was even some awesome Rosehip Tea!Everyone sharing in the yums...Our gracious host, Bryce, who makes pretty much anything possible because of his big heart and hospitality! The potluck was at his house! Thanks, Bryce!!

Jim Button is enjoying a tasty Pumpkin Bisque....
The spread...including my Cinnamon-Chestnut Bread Pudding, and Harvest Bread (from Fervere Bakery) with agave whipped Earth Balance! Yes!Adam Brumback, showing his love for the food and the people!
More amazing people around amazing foods...And the lovely Chelsea Ringler! Always a Sustainability Sunday supporter!! Yeah, there was even organic soda. haha!

Neil, digging into the goodness.
Everyone got soooo full and sooooo happy! :)

And everybody helped out, which made it even more amazing!!

Including Emily Lodigensky...

A good...no, great....time was had by all!! Let's hope next Sunday is even better!

Yay food and yay sustainability!!

Yay for Potlucks!

On Tuesday night, my friend Kat had a bunch of people over for a vegetarian (and mostly vegan!!) potluck! I love the idea of potlucks: everyone sharing their great food and talking and spending quality time together and eating that great food. What more could you want?? Plus, Kat works for PETA, so you know she's a cool girl!

I made my FAVORITE tofu salad recipe...I'll share the recipe some other time...and it was all eaten by the time Steve and I left! I'd say that's a good sign! Here was my potluck plate, sans dessert:I had (clockwise from the top) a teriyaki noodle and broccoli dish, an Indian dal with jasmine rice cooked in with it, quinoa tabouli, whole wheat pita wedges with hummus, my tofu salad, and some slices of baguette I brought from our local Uprise Bakery! (There were also some chips and homemade salsa and guacamole, as well as some local melon, but those were just nibbles....) Then there was dessert! Kat made a vanilla cake with chocolate frosting, and another guest made this amazing peach crisp that we ate warm! I cannot remember the last peach crisp I had, and I have never had a vegan one before, so I was supremely pleased needless to say! Plus, she used local peaches! DUH!!

A few nights later, some friends gathered for art night (a weekly artsy fartsy gathering among some friends) where we made paper mache things that will be turned into pinatas next week (I won't say what I made, but it's not PG.) For our gathering, I had to bake something, because that's the kind of weirdo I am. So, I went with my favorite thing pretty much ever: Raspberry Chocolate Chip Blondie Bars from Isa's Vegan With A Vengeance!! You seriously can't go wrong with these. Crowd pleaser and mouth pleaser. Cakey and gooey and fudgy and sweet and fruity and chocolately and vanilla-y. Too many "y's" to mention, really.

Raspberry Chocolate Chip Blondie Bars (makes 12-16)
For Raspberry Layer:

2 cups frozen raspberries

3 Tbs tapicoa starch

1/4 cup cold water

1/3 cup sugar

For Blondie Layer:

3 3/4 cup flour

1 1/4 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

6 oz. vanilla or plain soy yogurt

1/4 cup milk substitute (I used Silk creamer. damn!!!)

1/2 cup plus 2 Tbs canola oil

2 cups sugar

1 Tbs vanilla extract

1 cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 F. Lightly grease a 9x13 inch pan. Make the raspberry layer: In a saucepan, combine all of the raspberry layer ingredients and stir until the tapioca starch has dissolved. Bring to a boil, then lower heat to a low boil, stirring often. do this for about 5 minutes or until mixture is thick and gooey. Remove from heat and make the blondie layer.

To make the blondie layer: In a mixing bowl, sift together the dry ingredients. In a separate bowl, combine the wet ingredients. Mix the dry ingredients into the wet, in batches, until a dough forms. Set aside 1 cup of this dough. Spread the rest into the greased pan. Spread he raspberry goo layer over the blondie layer, then sprinkle half of the chocolate chips over the raspberry layer. Drop the remaining blondie dough over the raspberry/choc chip layer...spread out so it covers a lot of the top, but there is still some pretty pink goo showing through. Sprinkle the other half of the chocolate chips over the top of everything. Bake for 35 minutes, then let cool and serve. Be careful, though...these are so delish that they pose a hazard to your health. From Isa Chandra Moskowitz's Vegan With A Vengeance

Why don't I just eat these for every meal???

Also, I tried a new food last night: PawPaws! These JUICY fruits have a more tropical origin, but the ones that Steve and I ate were locally grown here in Mid-Missouri of all places! I didn't know what to expect, but I was freakin floored by these things!!! The taste is almost like halfway between a mango and a banana, and the texture is like a really soft papaya or mango, without the stringy bits. They are soooo sweet and have almost a vanilla-like flavor. In the words of Joey Lawrence: whoa!!! :) Here's the inside of the pawpaw....so gooey and yummy.
Here are the pawpaw seeds...they were stuck in the fruit randomly throughout, and were easily removed. They were the size of big kalamata olives, but felt like buckeyes. weird.
And here they are all innocent and ready to be eaten. You know you want one!